Saturday, June 23, 2012

To open this post I wrote up this whole brilliant allegory about how
sometimes you gotta be Paul Scofield, and sometimes you gotta be Ernest
Borgnine, and if you put the two together you get Marty, but then I
realized that all of three people reading this would have any idea who
or what I was talking about, so I skipped it. But trust me, it was
brilliant.

Here is Voris, clearly edified and energized by his new
digs and new name, ChurchMilitant.tv, knocking it out of the park. I
have pasted the key quotations he cites below, in case you want to copy
and paste them into a file for future reference.

Since,
in order that the deceits of the enemy may be avoided, it is necessary
first of all that they be laid bare; since much is to be gained by
denouncing these fallacies for the sake of the unwary, even though We
prefer not to name these iniquities "as becometh saints," yet for the
welfare of souls We cannot remain altogether silent. - Pope Pius XI

We’ve
had enough of exhortations to be silent! Cry out with a hundred
thousand tongues. I see that the world is rotten because of silence! - St. Catherine of Siena

If people are scandalized at the Truth, it is better to allow the birth of scandal, than to abandon the Truth. - Pope St. Gregory the Great

Let me add two more from the Church Fathers:

Everyone who can speak the Truth, yet speaks it not, will be judged by God. - St. Justin Martyr, died A.D. 165

Anyone
who conceals the Truth for fear of some authority calls down the wrath
of God upon himself, because he fears men more than God... Both are
guilty: he who conceals the Truth and he who speaks falsehood, because
the former does not wish to make the Truth known and the latter desires
not to refute it. - St. Augustine, died A.D. 430

I have heard a priest relate an anecdote regarding "prudence" that makes my flesh crawl. It goes something like this:

During World War II, the priests and bishops in Italy kept fairly
quiet, and did not preach with fire and zeal against Mussolini or Hitler
- their efforts against the Axis were more clandestine and underground.
In the Netherlands (correction here: I originally said Denmark - I was
wrong), by comparison, the priests and bishops were vociferous in their
preaching against the Reich. As a result, nearly the entire Jewish
population of the Netherlands was exterminated, while a far higher
percentage of the Jews in Italy survived the war.

This argument
is specious. It sounds good on the surface, but it is terribly flawed.
The Dutch clergy did the right thing - they were the truly PRUDENT
actors. They did what was right in those circumstances, which is to
preach the Truth without hesitation, and with as much zeal and fire as
they could muster. The failing in prudence was on the part of the other
clergy in Europe. Had the clergy of the entire Church stood tall and
railed without ceasing against Hitler, Mussolini, and the rest of the
players, had they made clear that ANY cooperation with these governments
was a mortal sin, and thus laetae sententiae excommunication,
which means automatic by virtue of committing the sinful action itself,
and not requiring any official juridical action of a bishop; if they had
told the people of Europe that it was either friendship with Christ,
which meant the total rejection of the Reich and the Fascist Italian
regime, or eternal hellfire, perhaps a war which killed 70 million human
beings could have been avoided, or drastically reduced in scale.
Comparing survival rates of Jews in one country versus another makes the
terrible assumption that the situation in Europe could not have been
any better, and could ONLY have been worse. Considering that 70 million
people were killed in World War II, it is lunacy to argue that "it
couldn't possibly have been any better."

This is why I am doing
what I am doing now with regards to Obama. I have, for my entire life,
marveled at the people of Germany, in particular. Why didn't anyone say
anything? Why didn't anyone do anything? If you had the chance and
ability to rhetorically destroy Adolf Hitler in the early 1930s, if you
had the capacity to reveal Hitler's insanity, homosexuality and
unspeakable fetishes and perversions, and also the lies of National
Socialism, wouldn't you do it? Wouldn't you do everything you could to
rhetorically destroy Adolf Hitler? Wouldn't you expose his depraved
homosexuality in order to utterly discredit him in the eyes of the
German people so that they would never come to regard him as some sort
of savior in the first place? Wouldn't you try to derail the train
before it caused a war that killed tens of millions of human beings?
If not, WHY NOT?

How is NOT speaking the truth in any way prudent, much less charitable?

Expect God's wrath all you who fear MEN more than you fear God, and
thus willfully conceal and stifle the Truth through silence and
passivity. And don't you dare call it prudence.

“How many voices in our materialist society tell us that happiness is to be found by acquiring as many possessions and luxuries as we can? But this is to make possessions into a false god. Instead of bringing life, they bring death.”- Pope Benedict XVI

"This past Wednesday I was in part of the hospital that was devoted to people who have memory problems like my father. The people here may have no idea who I am but they light up at the sight of a collar. People who cannot carry on a conversation click “on” and join in prayer as if there were little wrong with them, their faces relaxing in this moment of peace amidst the chaos of illness."- Fr. Valencheck

"The priest's life is not his own. He does not live it for himself and his personal fulfillment, but for the salvation of souls."- Fr. Richtsteig

"I am convinced that if we simply follow the liturgical books, say the texts and carry out the gestures properly, in a style continuous with our tradition, the Church’s liturgy has power the capture minds and hearts and transform them.

I starting forming this conviction before I became a Catholic through my experience of Novus Ordo Masses done in an entirely Roman traditional style, closely following the books.

The late Msgr. Richard Schuler would eventually articulate to me in words what I was experiencing in the church. "Just do what the Council asked… do what the Church asks."

Why is worship well executed according to the mind of the Church so effective?

Christ is the true Actor in the sacred action of the Church’s worship. He makes our hands and voices His own as He raises our petitions and offerings to the Father for His glory and our salvation.

Christ’s Holy Church has determined the way by which we may have this encounter with mystery in the liturgy, be taken up in the sacred action.

Although we have the right to our Rite celebrated as the Church desires, liturgy is not about me or us or even you in the pews." - Fr. Zuhlsdorf

"After celebrating Mass facing the Lord I can report these favorable effects from the priest's point of view:

1. I don't have to worry about where to look
2. I don't have to worry about what my face looks like
3. I can weep at the beauty and wonder of it all without concern
4. I can worship more freely and fully
5. I feel more at one with the people of God
6. I am on a journey to God with the people
7. I am not the focus of attention
8. The elevation of the host and the Ecce Agnus Dei have become more of a focus
9. I feel more part of the great tradition
10. I can't see who's not paying attention and feel I have to do something to get their attention back." - Fr. Longenecker

"My rector in Denver, when he was a young priest, was eating dinner at his secretary's house, a widow from Sicily. Thinking he was polite he said, 'If you wish you can call me Michael.' She stopped, put her hand on her hip, and, pointing at him with her wooden spoon, said, 'Don't think I call you Father because I think you're better than me! I call you Father to remind you who you're supposed to be and how you're going to be judged by our Lord!' He passes that lesson on to all his seminarians."- Fr. Andrew

Decalogue Against Temptation

1. Do not forget that the devil exists.
2. Do not forget that the devil is a tempter.
3. Do not forget that the devil is very intelligent and astute.
4. Be vigilant concerning your eyes and heart. Be strong in spirit and virtue.
5. Believe firmly in the victory of Christ over the tempter.
6. Remember that Christ makes you a participant in His victory.
7. Listen carefully to the word of God.
8. Be humble and love mortification.
9. Pray without flagging.
10. Love the Lord your God and offer worship to Him only.